Weekend Wrap for 20 June 2021

20 June 2021

Catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country in the NSL Weekend Wrap for 20 June 2021.

Don’t forget that the Weekend Wrap, which aims to help secular-minded Australians keep abreast of the latest news on current issues, is also published on our Facebook page!

At the National Level

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash is to bring a major rewrite of the contentious Religious Discrimination Bill to parliament by December, sparking new debate over faith-based and gay rights before the next election. (The Australian)

Liberal MPs are warning ­Attorney-General Michaelia Cash that any new draft of the ­religious discrimination bill cannot compromise gay marriage or turn into a faith-based “bill of rights”. (The Australian)

National lobby group, Just.Equal Australia, has welcomed public concerns about the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill from moderate Liberal Government Party MPs saying it increases pressure on Labor to come out against the Bill. (Out in Perth)

Listen to Rationalist Society president Meredith Doig speaking on the RSA's recent Religiosity in Australia report. (1:14:40 - 1:29:50) (ABC)

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and coalition MPs teamed up to vote in favour of a motion calling for children who are experiencing gender incongruence to be denied medical treatment. The motion failed after several Liberal MPs crossed the floor of the senate and voted with Labor, the Greens, and independent MP Jackie Lambie to defeat it. (Out in Perth)

Around the Country

SA: Conservative South Australian Liberal MPs have urged Josh Frydenberg to intervene in the state branch after venting outrage that hundreds of Pentecostal Christians had been forced out of the party. (The Australian)

SA: State Liberal powerbrokers have moved to avert “mutual assured destruction” amid an escalating factional war with a stunning backdown on a bid to exclude more than 100 new members from largely Pentecostal Christian communities – but tensions remain high as insiders warn “our party is on the line” amid an “ugly sectarian takeover”. (InDaily)

SA: (one we missed from last week) Some brief coverage of the exemptions covered by amendments to SA's voluntary assisted dying legislation. (Eternity News)

NSW: The conservative Sydney Anglicans will encourage ministers to be more inclusive in their language, by avoiding gendered language and providing unisex bathrooms. (SMH)

QLD: A Supreme Court judge has approved receivers of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland selling three nursing homes to help keep the services going and prop up the church's ailing finances. (The West Australian)

SA: South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic has described laws which aim to stop conversion practices as an attack on religious freedom. (Out in Perth)

NSW: The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has endorsed a recent amendment to the state's 1977 Anti-Discrimination Act moved by Labor MP Paul Lynch, to add religion as a protected attribute. (AFIC)

NSW: Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) held a “speak-out” against Lyle Shelton when he made an appearance at Dee Why’s New Life Church on Thursday. (Out in Perth)

Commentary and Analysis

Former High Court judge the Hon. Michael Kirby writes, in the foreword of the recently released Religiosity in Australia Report by the Rationalist Society of Australia, that society is in the throes of substantial change. (RSA) Read the report here.

In an era where religious importance is on the decline, it's only conservatives and the hard Right who are still pushing for religious discrimination, writes Dr Stuart Edser. (Independent Australia)

Conservative religious groups are pushing hard for laws allowing for discrimination, and the attorney-general is claiming progress is being made in that direction, writes Kishor Napier-Raman. (Crikey)

Tory Shepherd on the SA Liberal Party's examination of its new religious members: "The tricky tactic conservatives have adopted from the US – be the aggressor while claiming victimhood." (The Advertiser)

Jennifer Bleazby, senior lecturer at Monash University, writes on the importance of philosophy-based ethics as an alternative to religious education in Australian public schools. (Pesa Agora)

Assistant Bishop Genieve Blackwell comments on the recent Anglican Family Violence Research Report, which showed that Anglicans were as or even more likely than Australians in general to suffer intimate partner violence. (SMH)

A domestic violence survivor and former wife of an Anglican minister comments on the teaching of male headship with regard to the higher rate of domestic violence in the Anglican community. (SMH)

Paul-Alain Hunt, former president of Pride WA, asks why LGBTI members of parliament are not more active in vocalising a defence of the LGBTI community in the face of conservatism and religious fundamentalism. (Out in Perth)

That's it for another week!

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